Courage To Stay Strong
by Monday1113
Summary: A Major "What if" fanfic. After being left alone in the apartment while the others were away, Skales succeeded in kidnapping Lloyd. Will the others rescue him before Lord Garmadon agrees to the Serpentine's deal? Rate T for safety. More like k .
1. Chapter 1

**I dug this up from the depths of my fanfic folder.**

**What If: What if Skales had succeeded in kidnapping Lloyd in episode 14?**

**Warnings: Potential hostility towards a captive, possible cussing, and violence. **

**I own nothing**

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Chapter One

Lloyd's POV

I squinted at the screen. _'What was that in the corner?'_ I thought, leaning forward. Fear ran through me like ice when I realized it was Skales. Why was he moving downwards? I looked at the window; he was on one of those window washers' platforms, stopping when he was level with the apartment's floor.

"Hello little boy." He hissed. I didn't know where to go, or what to do, my uncle and Nya were supposed to be back soon, but by then, I'd probably be long gone! I barely knew how to fight; the others had been too busy to train me. Skales knocked on the window again, waving at me. I jumped off of the couch, running towards the door. As I typed in the security code, I heard the words I didn't want to hear.

"Door is locked." I pulled harder on the door, trying to force it open. This was _so _not the time for this.

"I know! I want it open!" I yelled, pulling again against the security locked door. There was a soft scraping sound, turning around, I saw Skales cutting a large circle in the glass window, shoving it inwards with his staff, it hit the floor, shattering. What do you want with me?" I shouted, trying to sound brave.

Skales slithered towards me. "You ssseem to be the only thing your father caresss about, but with you as my hosstage, he'll have no other choice but to let me lead the Sserpentine!" He was only a few feet away now, and I placed one foot on the door frame, gripping the handle with both hands, I pulled, there was a loud, screechy, metallic sound, and the door swung open, my balance was off when it opened though, and I fell backwards, into Skales' ready arms. "Gotcha!"I lifted one leg up, bending my knee; I brought it down on the end of his tail which had curled in front of him. He hissed in pain, flinging me across the room, into the training room. Landing flat on my back, I couldn't breathe. "Let'ss train…"

I swallowed nervously, and forced myself up. _'If he thinks he's gonna take me, I'm not going down without a fight!'_ Even if I didn't win, it might give uncle and Nya enough time to get here.

* * *

_Later_

* * *

Running my tongue over the gap where my front tooth had been, I sighed. _'That didn't go quite as well as I thought...' _My feet stumbled over another rock that was hidden under the sand. '_Maybe then I wouldn't be so hurt...'_ Sand continued lashing at my skin as we walked, Skales giving the rope a tug every few minutes, the cord digging into my neck, making me stumble even more. Hands tied behind my back, it took every ounce of my concentration to prevent myself from falling.

_Another blow came in contact with my head, the world spun around me. "Give up yet sssilly boy?" Skales jeered, towering over me. I shook my head, trying to clear my vision. He took it as a sign that I wasn't giving up, and he grabbed my sweat soaked hair with one hand, the other opening the door to the bathroom. Shoving me in, he closed the door, and left me alone, quickly returning with a white pillowcase. He shoved the pillowcase over my head and forced me to kneel, bending my back over the edge of the tub. A single drop of water landed on my face, letting me know what was going to happen as he turned on the water, I took a deep breath and began to hold it as cold water soaked through the pillowcase. My arms and legs flailed, using up the oxygen I needed. I couldn't help it. It was practically an instinct to fight back against it. The water suddenly stopped, and the pillowcase was ripped off of my head, cold water dripping down my face._

_"Have you cooled off?" Skales asked, laughing. I glared at the ground, and he wrung the pillowcase out over my head, more of the freezing water trickled down my skin. I shivered violently from the cold. "I'll take that assss a yesss." He hissed, tying my arms behind my back. He turned around to grab some more rope, and I ran, darting out the door, trying to find something that could untie the knotted material._

_A hand caught a fistful of my hair, yanking it backwards, my head snapped back, letting me look at Skales. A furious look was set in his eyes. Without releasing his grip on my hair, I was dragged back to the bathroom, and tossed against the hard tiles on the wall. Going limp, I took shallow breaths, biting my lip to hide the pain from impact.._

The sun had set a long time ago, way before we got to Ouroborus. I wanted nothing more than to collapse where I stood, and fall asleep. In the back of my head though, I knew what I had to do. I had to stay awake, just long enough to see what my chances of escaping from here would be.

It was as if the could tell what was going on in my mind. Skales threw the rope to a few of the lower ranked Venomari, who caught it. As they led me towards one of the buildings, I dug my heels into the sand.

Most ineffective thing to do. Ever. The sand parted like butter, before they jerked the rope hard. I landed face first in the sand. Gritty particles covering my face, and going up my nose. They stopped long enough to open the door. It gave me enough time to push myself into a sitting position. Getting up, I hung my head, blonde bangs obscuring my sight.

_'I can't believe it! This is the second time they've been able to capture me!' _In my head, I let out a loud groan. _'If the others hadn't been so busy all the time, they could have at least taught me something to do that would help me fight back!' _

Of course, I didn't know what to do, and they led me to the back wall, replacing the rope with a chain, attached to a sturdy looking ring on the wall. Beneath me, the stone felt ice cold.

They left, and as soon as the door closed, it was pitch black. I couldn't see anything. Drawing my knees up towards my chest, I felt hot tears welling up, burning me with shame. "S-stop it." My voice sounded pathetic. Sniffling a little, I rubbed my nose against the shoulder of my gi. "Y-you're the green ninja. I'm, I'm not afraid of anything..."_  
_

Leaning my head against my knees, I closed my eyes, the tears streaked down my cheeks. Sleepily, I murmurred to myself. "'m not 'fraid..."

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**Awww, so yeah. Sad little Lloyd in a totally dark room without any windows, being held hostage.**

**I swear, I'll go put effort into banging out a chapter for Bring Him Home. Will that make you people happy? Who knows, maybe if I get that done, I'll work on chapter 5 of ROTM.**

**And StrawberryBunny, if you're reading this, I know that I should be working on With Great Power Come Great...Lust?**


	2. Chapter 2

**OMG You people. You're lovely. I didn't expect the response I got out of this!**

**I own nothing**

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Chapter Two

Kai's POV

I couldn't wait for the elevator like the others were. Even though I was exhausted, the thought of Lloyd being in major trouble gave me strength. _'I have to- protect him. No matter the cost.'_

The door was wide open, and I could see puddles of water leading towards the hole in the window. My heart stopped.

Everything was blurry. My feet ran over the wood, and I could feel myself shouting, waiting for Lloyd to answer.

By the time the others got up here, I had found the state of the bathroom. Water pooling on the floor, and cracks in the tiles on the walls. "Guys...we failed." Turning around, I couldn't even look Sensei in the eye. "They got Lloyd."

* * *

Lloyd's POV

Waking up, every muscle in my body hurt. It was a fight to even open my eyes. When I did, there wasn't much of a difference. The room was still just as dark as before. This time though, I could see a little. I could see the outline of my legs when I stretched them out.

Twisting my wrists, I tested the knot. _'I think I can get out of these...'_ Blindly, I worked at getting out the binds. My nose twitched, before I let out a loud sneeze. It echoed off the walls.

Part of me wondered about if they had guards stationed to check on me if I made noise, because the very next second, I was blinded by sunlight, as the doors opened.

Of course, that was the moment that I managed to free my wrists too.

They came in, and unchained me from the wall. I quickly got up, following them out. As we walked out of the dark room, I had to close my eyes. The sun was shining stronger than it usually did.

Something sharp pressed against my back. _'Oh god, oh god, oh god. I am being held at knife point, or sword point. Whatever. It's a sharp metal object that could kill me in a heartbeat.' _My ribs hurt from not only hitting the tiles yesterday, but from my pounding heart. It was so loud, they could probably hear it.

They led me to the arena, shoving me onto my knees next to Skales. Sun warmed handcuffs encircled my wrists, and a piece of tape was placed over my mouth. Cracking my eyes open against the light, the whole area was silent.

Twisting around, I realized how few Serpentine there were. _'Maybe ten...including the generals...where are the others? I'm sure there were more...' _Wind blasted from above, kicking up clouds of sand. When it settled, I was looking at the Bounty.

* * *

Jay's POV

Thankfully, they allowed us to at least examine the security footage before they kicked us out.

Nothing. Absolutely, irrefutably, nothing. The door opens, but no one comes out, and it stays that way until Kai runs in. _'Alright...so Lloyd never made it out of the apartment the normal way...which means that they not only left out the window, but came in that way as well.' _Grabbing the notebook next to me, between a sketch of a mech for Nya, and some math to calibrate some software, I wrote down what we all knew so far.

_In and out window._

_Door forced open._

_Missing 1 pillowcase._

_Several broken tiles._

_Video game left paused._

Tapping the eraser against my chin, I closed my eyes. Pushing off the floor, the chair spun. _'Alright, next best move is to see if the building across from the window has any security footage that can help.'_

Walking out the door, the man who owned the building shoved me aside. "Get out. You've looked at the tapes, so go." Taking the notebook with me, I met with the others outside.

"Any luck?" Cole asked, and I nodded. Looking around, I figured out which building we needed to go to.

"So we're still going under the assumption that Skales took Lloyd, right? Came in and went out the window. If we ask nicely, maybe that building over there will let us see if they had any security footage that can confirm that, and give us some knowledge on if Lloyd's hurt or not."

"You sound like you're quoting that one show, you know, the one with the scientist chick and the FBI agent."

"Shut up. I know what I'm doing." I said, starting to walk away. _'Maybe once we get Lloyd back, I can go to the library and see if the new episode is up yet.'_

* * *

Lloyd's POV

"What is so important that you felt the need to seek me out, Skales?" My heart stopped. _'Dad!' _Looking up, I watched as he moved towards the side of the boat. With a jerk on the chain, I fell backwards, sinking about an inch into the warm sand. I could see that my father realized why he was here.

"I believe thisss is yoursss." Skales said. I wanted to strangle him for saying that so calmly. I didn't belong to dad. His face softened for a moment, before changing.

Dad landed on the sand without loosing his balance, staring Skales down. "What use would I have for him? He'll never cooperate." Even though he was lying, the words felt like a slap to the face. _'Well, that is sorta true. I wouldn't be evil.'_

The Fangpyre general slithered towards us, taking the chain from Skales."If you truly don't care for your ssson, then you'll have no problem with him becoming one of usss." Being lifted off the ground, I closed my eyes, feeling fangs resting right above my neck.

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**Ta-da.**

**Anyone know what show I was referencing? ;D**


	3. Chapter 3

** ()_()  
(o_O)  
(''') (''') **

**I see you guys liked the Ultimatum. ;D**

**Now If I owned anything, Lloyd would wear a maids dress at least once, Kai would have super flat hair when he wakes up, Cole's love for cake rivals L's for sweets, ect.**

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Chapter Three

Cole's POV

When we got to see the footage, I'm pretty sure we all winced. The cameras caught the image of Skales dragging Lloyd onto a window washer's platform pretty well. Even with the distance between the buildings, the image was high quality.

Lloyd looked pretty bad. He was bleeding from his mouth, and he seemed dazed. "That explains why it looks like a bomb went off..." Jay mumbled, his eyes glued to the screen. Talking to himself. Again.

I pushed my arms off the desk, walking out of the cramped security room. Zane stood by the payphone, waiting for us to all decide on what exactly to tell Sensei. "Right...definitely not looking forward to Wednesday morning now." Zane smiled a little, knowing exactly what I meant. Protecting Lloyd was our job, and we failed. Sensei'll be pissed. Sunrise exercise will be _hell_.

"Do you think we'll be able to get him back before anything happens to him?

"I sure hope so. He's already hurt, and we've all seen him try fighting. He's not going to be able to get out of this on his own."

It really sucked, knowing that if we couldn't figure out where they were keeping him, that we could lose him forever. How he depended on us to save him. How we failed to do our job. We'd all sworn to protect him, and he's gone.

"Cole, what's your vote?" Jay asked. I looked at him, Kai standing behind him, still silent.

"On what?"

"On if we should go check on Ouroborus, or not." Jay crossed his arms, and tilted his head. "Kai and I are up for it. What about you?"

Chewing on the inside of my mouth, I thought. _'Where else could he be? If the Serpentine have him, there aren't many places they could hide him.' _"Sure. I'm in. What about you Zane?"

"Of course."

* * *

Garmadon's POV

Panic ran through Lloyd in a pretty non-discrete way. His eyes widened, and as both heads leaned in, they quickly closed, scrunching up tightly, as if he'd vanish into nothing. _'If that was one of his powers, it'd be interesting to see.' _

My heart pounded, knowing full well that they wouldn't hesitate. This time, they weren't bluffing. "Wait," I said, reaching forward. Fangtom's heads stopped, fangs resting right above Lloyd's skin. His green eyes snapped open, looking at me with hope."What if we can make a deal?" His face fell, void of all hope.

Skales laughed, slithering towards me, not stopping until his staff was under my chin. "You are in no posssition to bargain, essspecially sssince we have the only perssson you care about."

"You are mistaken. I have most of your people. If I told them to come down here, and take my son from you, they would obey without hesitation." Glaring, the top of the staff pressed harder against my throat.

"If you value your ssson'sss humanity, you won't."

I was silent, and it seemed as if all we could do was glare at each other. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Lloyd trying to stay as still as possible. I looked at my son, quickly noting the bruises that had formed. "Give me three days time to make a choice."

"How will we know what your choice wassss?"

"Chose a meeting point, and on the third day, as the sun sets, I will be there." In my mind, I vowed silently that they would chose a place that would easily alert the ninja. Get them to deal with it instead.

"I believe the ssssouth wesssstern coast of Ninjago will work." I froze inside. The south western coast was the direction the Dark Island supposedly resided. "Unlesssss you jussst want usss to turn your ssson now..."

"No. It's fine. I'll be there."

* * *

**Only three days...oh dear. **

**I have a few relatively maddening twists planned. Don't worry.**

**Honestly I intend to update every 3 days, unless I positively cannot. **


	4. Chapter 4

**Remember that 3 day thing? Well, I had a lot of civics work to do.**

**OMG NINJAGO REBOOT!**

**I own nothing children.**

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Chapter Four

Kai's POV

As the sunlight faded, we made it to the was totally silent. The others close behind, I pulled up my hood. "Be on the lookout for any sudden-"

"Kai, it seems that the city is empty." Zane said. His voice slightly let down. "We missed them."

"Can't be. We couldn't have..." I mumbled. Sure enough though, an entire sweep of the city left us with nothing. The sun was setting now, the last beam hitting a door.

_'Oh. Duh.' _Walking over, I pushed it open even more, finding what appeared to be a hole in the ground. "Guys, I found something. Grabbing the scrap of green of the ground, I walked out. "Now who feels like going down a dark hole and looking for the way out?"

* * *

Lloyd's POV

How the snakes could find their way around in the dark was beyond me. Stomach growling, I stumbled over another tree root. We'd been going down here for hours. About an hour ago, the tape had fallen off. Apparently it wasn't too important to keep my silent anymore.

"When are we stopping?" I mumbled, trying to ignore their hissing laughter as my stomach growled again. "Cause I'm starting to get thirsty..." Memories of when Pythor had kept me in that cage bubbled up again. How he had made me beg for food and water, leaving it just out of my reach. _'It's probably too much to expect them to be any different. They only have to keep me alive for three days. After that, who knows what'll happen to me.'_

"We'll ssstop when we get there, and not a moment sssooner!" The sword poked my back again, this time not as nicely. Running low on energy, mainly because I was hungry and tired, my feet dragged in the dirt. _'Maybe if I walk slowly, the others could catch up…' _Internally smirking at my clever idea of dropping my hood when they shoved me down the hole, I continued.

So walking underground, before being shoved outside right as the sun is setting turns out to hurt your eyes. Fresh air, wonderful. Sunlight? Horrible.

They shoved me into a bush, tying the rope to the roots. Twisting my shoulder to get comfortable, I felt something scratch against my cheek. _'Oh crap, thorns, lots and lots of thorns.' _Watching the sun set over the hills, and seeing plenty of people pass by me, I stayed as still as possible. My eyes slowly closed, and the next thing I knew, I was waking up in a small room. There were faded parts on the wall where posters could have been at one point.

_'They left me…in a room?' _The strangeness of the Serpentine wasn't lost on me. _'They either broke into this place, or it was abandoned, or something.' _Rolling so I was on my side, my stomach growled, and this time louder than it was in the tunnel, and it _hurt_. Curling in on myself, I grit my teeth. _'It's been a while since I've been this hungry. The guys usually throw an apple at my face after training. I'm so hungry; I wouldn't care if I had to eat Cole's chili. Well…maybe I'd care a little…'_

Lying on my side, I listened, hoping to hear any movement that would let me know where I was. _'I didn't recognize anything outside from earlier…and that's pretty big, considering I've been all over Ninjago.' _My mind recalled the image of the people walking away, all in similar outfits. _'Well, maybe they all just got off work, and since it was getting dark, maybe we're near one of the more agricultural areas…' _Thankfully, remembering all the different villages and regions in Ninjago was something I was good at. _'Some agricultural regions include Ignacia, among several others…' _

I sat up suddenly, pulling myself over towards the window. Ignacia was well-known for its view of the mountains, and sure enough, from where the window was, that was the imagined view a lot of people had in their minds. _'So I'm in Ignacia. This…this is Kai's hometown! If I can get away long enough to find someone and tell them that I need to find Kai, I'll be safe!' _

In the excitement of my plan, I hadn't heard the door open. A heavy bag fell to the floor, the sound of chains rattling inside. The room temperature dropped air icy cold. Whipping around on the balls of my feet, I saw Skales. His eyes set in a narrowed glare. Pushing away from the window sill, I rolled past him, about to fall through the trapdoor; a set of steep stairs. My hands hit the wood with a loud smack. Drawing my legs in tight, his tail coiled around my ankle. My muscles tensed. There was no way I'd be able to get out of the grip of his tail without falling flat on my face, and rolling down the stairs.

I felt myself being dragged up the few stairs I had slid down, a loose nail ripping the hem of my gi. He flipped me onto my back, glaring at me.

My eyes closed a second too late. I didn't react fast enough.

"You will stay where I put you, unless I say otherwise."

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**^.^ I updated.**

**Yes, indeed there are to be some twisty twists ahead.**


	5. Chapter 5

**So expect no update until Friday. I have rehearsal tomorrow after school, and Homecoming show Tuesday, after which, I'll be playing the new Terraria update.**

**BUUTTT~ You can always go look for All that LOVELY new NINJAGO news!**

**Like, new designs, theories, the potential angsty material of Glacier shipping(fangirl gotta have hope)**

**I own Nothing. _yet..._**

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Chapter Five

Lloyd's POV

Now I see why people hated the Hypnobrai so much. When Skales told me to sit on a hard wooden stool that allowed me to at least look outside, I sat. As soon as he added the order for me not to move, that was a different story. Heavily weighted chains were mainly decorations now. They dragged my hands down, and pulled at my shoulders uncomfortably. The ache of my muscles was dull. Just like the sleeping village outside the window.

* * *

The sun was beginning to rise now. _'Tomorrow. After tomorrow, I'll either be free, or I'll be slowly turning into a snake.' _I could see that the chances for my escape getting slimmer. If the others did find me, I'd still be under Skales' control.

_'Come on...I just need to get up and move a foot away. If I move a foot away, then I'll be good.' _No matter how hard I pleaded with my body, I couldn't move.

Not being able to move is really boring, and it gets boring really fast. _'It could have been worse…I could be somewhere without a window.' _

Window or not, when people started going to work, that gave me a few minutes reprieve, but it faded quickly.

_'Come on guys, where are you?'_

* * *

Jay's POV

Seeing sunlight after what felt like forever was great. Sure it was disorienting, but it was nice. "Guys, were we down there all night?!"

"Yeah Jay, we were. Stop acting so surprised." Cole snapped. He always gets grumpy when he doesn't get to sleep enough. It's great when we're fighting, but when we're training, it's awful.

Kai walked around, looking past the trees. "Guys, I know where we are." He took off, practically flying through the trees, bobbing and weaving with ease. For the others and me, we were left stumbling, and trying not to trip

"Kai!" I shouted, trying to get him to slow down, my hands slamming into the bark of a tree, trying to break my fall. "Slow down! None of us know where you're going!" He couldn't hear me, he was too far ahead. I looked back towards the others, rolling my eyes. "Sure seems that he hasn't stopped running off all the time."

* * *

After we finally disentangled ourselves from the relatively thick forest, we saw Kai waiting for us, a small smirk on his face. "Glad to see you could finally make it!"

Cole stepped forward, glaring. "Wanna explain why you just took off running?"

I looked around, and slowly nodded. "Because Kai knows this place like the back of his hand." I looked towards the others. "This is Kai's hometown."

"Exactly. When we were younger, Nya and I'd run around in that forest. We could find our way out pretty easily." We started walking into town, looking to see if anyone had seen Lloyd, or any sightings of Serpentine.

* * *

Lloyd's POV

It must have been around lunchtime when the small square outside started filling up with people. Watching them mill around, talking to each other, it made me realize how lonely I was. Wherever the generals were, I didn't know, but now, I would have accepted their company, even if they only made me feel bad about myself.

Someone in bright red walked through the large group of people outside. "Kai..." I breathed his name, it wasn't even a whisper. Kai was maybe fifteen feet away from the building I am in. I wanted to open the window and yell, do anything that would tell him I was here.

_'Move away from the window.'_

My body moved without my consent, sitting me down on the floor maybe a foot away, back flat against the wall. My head didn't even touch the windowsill now. There'd be no way for me to get seen.

With my head flat against the wooden wall, nothing could stop my tears from slipping past my eyes. It wasn't entirely that no one would know I was up here, it was that if any of the generals came in now, they'd see me crying. If they saw me crying, they'd find it funny, making jokes about it.

* * *

Kai's POV

"Sorry Kai. Can't say we have." One of my former classmates only confirmed what I was beginning to think, that the Serpentine had set up a decoy. "Tell Nya we said hey though!"

"Haha, will do." Smiling, I turned around, quickly frowning. Cole and Zane were walking towards me. "Any luck?" They both shook their heads. "Same here."

"I'm starting to think this was just a way to distract us..." Jay ran over, obviously out of breath.

"Some kids thought they saw Serpentine in the woods yesterday, a little bit before the sun set. If they were here, they're probably long gone."

"Then we don't have much time to lose. They have...maybe a twelve-hour lead, but we can catch up." Looking around at the others, I could feel that energy we usually had when we knew things were going to happen. "Let's go!"

Taking off back towards the forest, we tore through the trees, needing to make up for lost time.

* * *

**DX Oh dooooooh! Bad Ninja, Bad! You were so close! Nuuu. **

**Ta-da, more Lloyd angst.**

**Next chapter has a lot of things happening.**


	6. Chapter 6

**So yeah...Homecoming show went nicely. My algebra 2 teacher has taken pity on us, and is giving us no homework until Monday night. That's always a nice blessing for me. More typing time. Unfortunately, I have to make a Media Kit by Friday for my Web Page Design Class.**

**I still own nothing.**

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Chapter Six

Lloyd's POV

I must have fallen asleep at one point, because the next thing I knew, I was standing up, suddenly awake. Skales was removing the heavy metal chains, the soreness that had been slowly growing very clear now. He shoved an apple into my hands. "Eat it."

Not one would have to tell me twice, I lifted it up to my mouth, quickly biting into it. It was so fresh, it made a loud enough crunch to have Skales whip around to look at me, knocking me off my feet with his tail. The apple fell out of my hands, rolling a few feet away from where I was sitting. Chewing on the bite that was in my mouth, I swallowed, before reaching out for the apple.

_'Oh wait, I can't.' _My mind reached the point where it remembered that any movement I made had have an order, given to me by Skales. Mentally glaring, I watched his every move. It seemed as if the apple incident hadn't happened, or maybe he didn't care that the apple was lying on the ground in plain sight. _'Oh, come on, turn around you stupid snake!' _My glare intensified, almost to the point that I felt like a cartoon character.

Our of nowhere, I felt my head aching stronger than it did when I hit the tiles in the bathroom. With every breath I took, it seemed like I took in less and less air. Panic surged through me, before the headache disappeared. Air rushed back into me with the next breath. Gulping down air, the apple rolled back, and even though it had been on the ground, the order to eat it was still in my mind. _'And it still tastes good. A little sour, but still good.'_

As soon as I had eaten the apple down to the core, Skales' staff pressed against my back. "Walk. Quickly, and sssilently." He steered me with his staff, and made me walk down the steep steps. Funnily enough, they lead into the one place the others would never look. Kai's blacksmith shop. Four Weapons.

_'That's why they didn't find me! They'd never think the Serpentine would come in here!' _Looking at the walls, part of me wondered if they even knew whose home they were in. It was pretty empty, the windows were boarded up. Kai had mentioned that they were closing the shop up until they found someone to take over at one point.

It was dark outside, and everyone was probably asleep. _'Not like I could yell for help if I wanted to.' _The order that made me silent had effectively glued my lips shut. My feet slipped in and out of the tangled roots of trees. As soon as we were out of the village's sight, Skales and I reunited with the other Serpentine generals.

"How wasss getting him out of that placce?" The Venomari leader hissed, voice just above a whisper. A staff shoved against my back, making me stumble.

"It wassss easssy onccce we got moving. He found out what happensss when I don't like what he'sss thinking." I wanted to stop where I was. The whole headache and choking feeling. "It'sss not asss fun asss when sssomeone triesss to disssobey a command though." Shuddering slightly, I swallowed, saliva oozing slowly down my throat, coating it. If that's what happens when he doesn't like what I'm thinking, then I don't want to know what would happen if I tried to regain freewill.

Focusing on breathing deeply, trying to get a sense of where I was, I tuned out their conversations. My eyes were adjusting to the dim light of the full moon, and the bright stars.

"For a pathetic child, he sssure doesss think a lot!" Skales joked, getting a laugh out of the others.

"Who knew he could think! Always charging into battle without a sssecond thought!" Biting my lip, I felt my eyes stinging with each sentence they hissed.

"And they think he'ssss going to become a great ninja ssssome day! HA!"

That was the last straw. Something inside me broke. I whipped around, and faced them, stopping where I stood. "Shut up! You don't know anything! I will be the best ninja that ever was!" My throat felt like someone had just tried to tube-feed me Cole's chili. It burned, and gave me the distinct feeling of being choked. "And when I get out of here, I'll make it my goal to-"

The end of a staff collided with my chest, sending me flying against the trunk of another tree. Lights exploded behind my eyes, the choking feeling intensifying. Fire was literally burning through me. It was so hot, I was cold. Muscles twitched and spasmed, and each second I laid there on the ground, crumpled like a doll, it got worse.

"Get up." Through all the mind-consuming pain, I heard the order, and stood, still struggling to breathe. "Open your eyes." It was Skales. He was the one talking to me. My mind was slowly remembering everything the pain had displaced. I closed my eyes tighter, reveling in the slight control I had. A scaly fist collided with my stomach, forcing all my air out, and the choking sensation in my neck became real. No air was coming in now. Head spinning, I opened my eyes, looking straight into Skales' eyes. "You will never break away. Not now, not ever."

He dropped me to the ground, and I sat there, dazed a little. My breath came in little, shallow gasps. "Now get up."

Body now completely under his command, like a puppet on strings, I rose. Following him and the other generals towards the point we would meet up with my father. _'Dad...please be there. I need you right now. Please, just, please be there.'_

* * *

**Whew! Typed up this monster in about 4 hours!**

**My friends gave me 20 "Keywords" To write Ninjago fanfics with! I'm working on them during my 2nd block, and when I finish one, I'll post it. Feel free to send in Keywords for me!**

**I might have an update on Saturday, but I might not. It depends on if I have Civics work or not, but as of now, I'd say there's...a fairly good chance of me updating.**

**Time for me to go work on the long awaited chapter for ROTM.**

**Can anyone give me feedback that's more than a word? Pretty please? Some of you are super good about giving me "EEE!" Worthy reviews!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Ugghhhhh...sorry It's late Again. I could come up with a billion and two excuses as to why, but I don't want to.**

**I still own nothing.**

* * *

Chapter Seven

Lloyd's POV

I wanted to stop moving all together. I wasn't able to, but it sure would be nice if I could.

We ended up walking the entire night, the sun's now rising, and we're still not there yet. The sun beat down on my head, glistening against the dark, cracking rocks. Taking another step, I couldn't move fast enough before it collapsed under me, fragments scraping against my ankle. The generals kept moving on, Skales shooting me a sickening smile. "Come on. Follow."

Against my will, my body tried jerking my leg out of the deep crack, another rock shifted next to my foot, and it was all that was needed to pin my foot down. Still following the order, my body didn't stop, despite the heavy object that was slowly crushing my foot.

The burning feeling was back again, though this time it was less intense. Starting in my foot, just below where the rock was, it began to spread. The choking feeling was back, it was like I had swallowed a chip, and it got stuck in my throat, painfully digging into my flesh. My lungs were burning, and my hands clawed at the stones, trying to shift them enough to get out. Just enough so the pain would end.

Blackness ate away at my vision, and I felt the world spin violently. _"Stay right there."_

* * *

Something was cutting into the sides of my face, when I tried to open my eyes, I realized it was a blindfold. The material was lightly colored, and I could feel sunlight beating down on me. My skin felt warm, and I could hear water.

Someone was approaching, and on the inside, I tensed up, my body remaining relaxed, as if I was still asleep. A hand gently shook my shoulder, before going to untie the blindfold. Remaining silent and still, the blindfold fell away, and I opened my eyes, squinting against the sunlight. _'Dad!' _I thought excitedly, but from the look on his face, I knew my joy wasn't visible.

He stepped back, still looking at me. "Well Skales, it seems you barely kept him alive."

"Keeping him alive wasssn't one of your termsss, Garmadon!" Skales spat back, his tail whipped against my back, sending me plummeting into the sand, the grit getting into my eyes. Blinking furiously, there was no way to avoid crying. Hot salty tears fell as I pushed myself up. _'Wait, was that free will?' _Pushing against the sand, I realized what was going on. _'He wants me to look like I'm normal!'_

_'Very good. Maybe you have some brains after all. Now make it look like you want to get out of those ropes. Struggle a little. Make it convincing.' _Skales' voice sounded weird in my head, it didn't have that Serpentine hissing sound. Shrugging, I twisted a little, rubbing my eyes against my shoulder. "Sssso are you sssurrendering, or isss he oursss?" The leering tone made my stomach turn nervously. Even though I knew dad would pick me, so he could make sure I never got trained, the fear of Skales still having control over me, knowing everything I know scared me.

"Can I talk to him for a second? To explain my choice to him?" I looked down at the sand, biting my lip. _'He's not going to save me. He's gonna let them bite me.' _My chest felt like I was getting squeezed tightly, panic overrunning me.

"Of courssse." They jerked me up by my arm, and shoved me towards dad. Stumbling a little, dad caught me, steadying me in the sand. He bent down so he was at my level.

"Get ready." He said softly, just loud enough for me to hear. Raising his voice a little, he gripped my arm tightly. "You're no son of mine, ninja." As he shoved me away, making me fall back on my heels, his hand grabbed me, pulling me back to him. Dragging me through the sand towards the treeline, my legs struggled to keep up with his. "Hurry Lloyd!"

Stumbling again, I fell, face landing in the sand. With my arms bound tightly behind me, I couldn't get up on my own. Not quickly anyways. Quickly realizing what was wrong, dad scooped me up into his arms, still moving fast. _'Make him stop!' _The order was fresh in my mind, hiss free, and stronger than the other orders. "Dad!" I said quietly, trying not to sound scared. My throat already seemed to be closing again, each breath I took felt strangled. "Dad, stop!"_  
_

"I can't Lloyd. Not until we're out of here." He didn't understand, and with the pain in my throat beginning to grow again, I couldn't tell him why. Tears streaked down my face as dad kept running. Each step on the uneven terrain, and each sudden change of direction led to my body being shaken slightly. The pain of the past three day's injuries weighed down on me, making my tears double.

The constriction in my throat finally left, and I took a deep breath, letting out a shudder-y cough. He kept moving, not stopping until the Bounty was in the air, crossing over the beach, and out into the ocean. "Dad," I asked as he set me down on the deck, wind blowing against my face. "Where are we going?"

"We're going somewhere no one can take you away from me." He pulled out a knife, and slashed through the ropes that kept my arms behind me. Rubbing some feeling back into my numbing hands, I couldn't help but feel afraid. This time, because my dad had me. Because now, the ninja wouldn't be able to save me. Before, I had a chance they'd find me. Now, it was next to impossible.

* * *

**Ta-da! Garmy saved Lloyd, but Skales still has control! Definitely going to use that to my advantage in the next chapter! Turns out, school didn't teach Lloyd how to swim very well!**


	8. Chapter 8

**So I'm late...maybe the three-day rule was a bad idea.**

**I mean, I still have school to balance out with, and Algebra 2 is a shitty subject for me. I kid you not, getting a low C is now like getting an A+ for me.**

**So yeah, I- Blah blah blah, insert disclaimer here. on we go with the story.**

* * *

Chapter Eight

Lloyd's POV

Dad led me back into the room the guys and I used to share. I could hear the door lock behind me, and looked around the room. The windows gave a pretty good view of the water below, showing me that we were moving further and further away from Ninjago, and the others.

There wasn't really anything in the rooms besides our beds, and some of the guy's clothes. We never really spent a lot of time in here, except for when we were going to sleep, so there wasn't really anything in here. Sitting down on my bed, I flopped back, head accidentally hitting the wall. The door unlocked, and a guard looked in, almost satisfied to see me rubbing my head. _'So essentially, I've gone from being a prisoner of Skales, to being a prisoner stuck on a ship, locked in a room. If this is what it's like to get grounded, I can definitely see why the others hate it.'_

Listening for the sound of the door locking again, I got up, walking over to the window. _'Maybe I can climb out and-' _Water, to be more specific, a forty-foot drop into water. _'Well then, never mind that idea. Moving on then.' _Walking towards the door, I pulled against the doorknob, twisting it both ways. It stayed firmly locked in place.

There was only one real way out of this room, and that was the door. Sitting back down on my bed, I glared at the window, watching bloody orange fade to a blue color, then into purple, before completely turning black.

"Lloyd," My dad called from outside the room. He opened the door, holding a slightly steaming plate. "You must be hungry, here." He sat the plate down on the small bed stand under the window, right next to the alarm clock.

"Dad, Skales hypnotized me." I mumbled, not loud enough for him to hear. "He's planning something." I continued, this time a little louder.

"Who? Skales?" He turned around, giving me a smile. "Not much he can do now. He has no way to get all the way to the Dark Island."

The Dark Island. The place that everyone thought only existed in myths. Staying still, I couldn't meet my father's eyes. _'I thought it was just a story that some of the older kids told about to scare us!'_

My father reached out for me, his hand brushed over my hair in what I guess what supposed to be a comforting way before he left. The second the door locked, pain exploded behind my eyes, I couldn't breathe. It was worse than when the sparring bot knocked the wind out of me, and I had hit my head against the wall.

Curling in on myself, I tried to lessen the pain. _'You shouldn't have even said that!'_ Skales' voice echoed around in my head, like there was nothing else in there. It kind of sounded like he was yelling into a microphone.

'_Just leave me alone! He didn't hear me! He only thinks that I'm afraid you're going to come after me!' _I screamed back in my head, and sure enough, the pain lessened, not entirely going away, but going away enough for me to get up off of the bed, and go pick up the plate of food. A simple sandwich and applesauce. Yum.

Picking up the spoon, I scooped up some of the applesauce, quickly swallowing it. It was cold, and slid down smoothly.

Turns out that not getting real food for three days leads to being extremely hungry. Normally, I'm not a major fan of applesauce, but now, I could care less.

* * *

I didn't remember falling asleep, or even finishing my small meal, but the next thing I knew, I was waking up on my bed, completely comfortable under my blanket. Moving a little revealed that at some point, bandages covered some of the scrapes and cuts from the past few days, my ankle especially. _'So someone does care enough to help me out. Great.'_

Getting up, I stepped on the wooden floor lightly, trying to make as little sound as possible. Testing the doorknob, it opened.

Walking down the hall, I stayed as close to the wall as possible. Even though I knew it was stupid, the sound of my heartbeat was so loud, I was afraid they'd hear it and know I had gotten out of the room.

Early morning sun streaked through the window, giving me just enough light to see by as I walked. The entire ship seemed quiet, as if no one else was onboard. _'There's no way we could have reached the Dark Island so soon. It's not possible.'_

Getting out on deck, I was almost afraid that the wind was going to knock me right over the side of the ship. Waves tumbled stormily below, letting me know we were still in the air.

"Lloyd?" I looked behind me, and my dad stood on the stairs, walking down quickly. "You shouldn't be up here." Before I could even attempt to explain, he walked over to me, placing one of his hands on my shoulder. "I want you to be completely honest with me, did the others train you at all?"

"No. They didn't have the time."

My father seemed to be glad about this, his face seemed to relax a little. "How did Skales kidnap you?"

Another simple question. "He came into the apartment we were staying in. He said...he said that he was going to use me as a bargaining chip, that I was the only thing you cared about..." Looking down at my feet, I felt smaller than normal. The kind of small that makes you realize that in the entire world, you are as significant as a speck of dust. My dad crouched down to look me in the eyes.

"You are one of the most important things in my life Lloyd. You are my son, and nothing will ever change that." He stood up, hand still on my shoulder. "Come with me. I have something I want to tell the Serpentine, and I want you to be there."

Walking up the stairs, my stomach turned uneasily. _'Something's about to happen...' _In the back of my mind, there was a dull buzzing sound, and then it hit me.

_'Now's the time for you to make an exit. Get off the boat. Now.' _Skales ordered. My body began to move against me, jerking out of dad's grip, I backed up to the edge of the stair I was on, before falling.

Wind rose up to meet me, doing nothing to slow my descent. "LLOYD!" My father shouted, his voice becoming distant. Flipping in the air, I closed my eyes, right as I hit the water.

* * *

Bubbled flew up around me in the dark water. Currents dragged me around, and I hated the fact that I had never learned to swim. _'So is this how it's going to end? I'm going to end up drowning in the ocean?!' _Fear fueled my panicking thoughts, but with one more strong kick, I was above the surface of the water. The waves were just as stormy, if not worse down here than they appeared up there.

Flipping onto my back, I tried floating. _'Think light thoughts. Air bubbles, hot air balloons, the falcon...' _Keeping my mind occupied didn't help long. Treading water was tiring, and I found myself straining to stay awake.

* * *

My eyes opened a little, rough, rocky sand dug into my hands and feet, the bandages felt loose, heavy, and really waterlogged. Sun shone down gently from above. _'I'm alive...' _Sitting up quickly, the world swam in front of me.

Hands pushed me back down lightly. "It's alright, you're safe now. Just rest for a while."

I wasn't really in the mood to argue, and just laid still. "You seem pretty beat up...nothing a bit of rest can fix! In a few days, I bet you'll be good as new!" Whoever was speaking seemed to think I couldn't hear him, or maybe he was just talking to himself.

Closing my eyes, I drifted off, the sound of waves filling my mind.

* * *

**Well, I compensated the three day rule. I made it super long this time.**


	9. Chapter 9

**I own nothing.**

* * *

Chapter Nine

Kai's POV

We all were silent, sitting in the really small apartment. For the first time, our meal was entirely silent. No one could bring themselves to tell Sensei how much we had messed up. We didn't need to though, he could already tell.

Staring down at my plate angrily, I wanted everything to go back to normal, I wanted Jay to try to lighten the mood the way he always did. I wanted Zane to use his profound wisdom to say something inspirational that would get us back in gear.

Most of all, I wanted to go back in time, and fix everything. We never should have gone for the apartment where we'd pay more, and have to get jobs. We should have just stayed with the tiny cube we were in now. They'd told us we could use the roof to train, just as long as we didn't make a mess up there. It would have been fine.

Zane suddenly got up. "The falcon has located the Generals. They are back in Ouroboros."

"Then what are we doing sitting around here?" I asked, quickly getting up. "Let's go!"

I was almost out the door when Zane spoke again. "Lloyd is not with them."

The world seemed to slow down. "What?" Everyone seemed to shout at once.

"What do you mean Zane?" Cole asked, his facial caterpillars disappearing under his hair.

"He was not there with them. It may mean that they have either hidden him somewhere, he escaped or..."

"Or he is now with his father." Sensei said, standing up. "I fear that is what has happened."

The tiny apartment became silent again, except now, we had something to follow.

* * *

Cole's POV

Making it to the city, they seemed to have waited for us. "Where is he?" Kai said, stepping forward.

"Where isss who?" Skales replied, almost bored. "Oh, you mean Lloyd. Hissss father took him away."

I could feel the others bristling in anger. I was too. It wasn't hard to tell that they were purposefully skipping details. "Well duh. Any clue on where they went?"

He shrugged. Not giving us a real answer. Turning around, we started to leave. Back to square one. The irritating, useless, square one.

* * *

"Guys, just standing here debating on who's going to go do what Sensei said isn't going to get Lloyd back any sooner." I said, staring at the others.

We were outside the Ninjago Museum, just like Sensei had told us to. He said we needed to find someone named Misako, and ask about the Dark Island. Jay got up. "Why don't we all go in? You know, stick together?"

"How would you feel if four slightly angry, slightly mad ninja invaded _your _workplace, asking for answers?"

Jay went up a step, making himself equal with my height, two steps above. "Remember what happened last time we split up? We ended up falling for a distraction, and Lloyd got kidnapped." Shoving him back, he stumbled, landing on the ground. "The hell was that for?!"

"You were in my face! Don't you remember that if we hadn't gone for that distraction, you might still be down in the subway system, or possibly dead from-"

"Guys!" Kai shouted at the same time, helping Jay up. "Look, Jay's got a good point. When has splitting up ever ended up good for us? We're a team, and if this person knows Sensei, I'm pretty sure they can handle anything."

Glaring, I looked at Zane. "What about you Zane, what are your thoughts?" He looked at all of us, and nodded. "It would be wise for all of us to be there."

"Then let's go." I said, starting to make my way up the stairs. "And Jay,"

"Yeah?"

"I'm sorry."

* * *

Misako's POV

Rubbing my eyes, I yawned again, before pushing my glasses back up my nose. The letters on the scroll in front of me were moving slightly, a sign that it was time for me to take a small break from translating._ 'Everything's still on schedule, there's about a month left before I have to finish translating all of these for the new exhibit.'_ Getting up, I stretched, grabbing the brown paper bag Clarence had dropped off hours ago.

Heading outside, I walked past a group of teenage boys who seemed to be arguing about something, but continued on my way to the park. Sitting down under the tree, I quickly ate the cold food, eager to get back to translating the scroll.

It was unlike the others that we had found with it, instead of being about the Stone Army, it was about the Green ninja. The sooner I could translate it, the sooner I would be able to keep Wu informed on any developments related to the final battle.

In the back of my mind, something told me to get back to the museum, the same feeling that I had been getting for the past four days.

By the time I got back, I noticed the four guys were still there, two of them having a very heated discussion. Walking past them, Emma, the young volunteer who was at the information desk, jumped up and pointed. "CALM DOWN!" She shouted, and the two stopped arguing. "Misako, these four are looking for you."

Nodding, Emma seemed so relieved that I was here. One of the four, the blonde one, walked over. "Excuse me, we have some questions that need to be answered about the Dark Island."

Tilting my head, the other three walked over. "This isn't the right place to talk about this. Come along." Leading them to my office, I quickly rolled the scroll I had started to translated shut. One of the two who had argued looked around.

"Whoa...this must be heaven for someone who loves history..." I nodded.

"It's one of the reasons that I work here." Walking over to my computer, I pulled up the file on the Dark Island. The four made themselves comfortable on the other stools in my office. "What exactly do you need to know?"

"Look, we need to know the quickest way to get there, and save our team-mate." The spiky haired one said, glaring. The others shot him a look, and only the blonde's seemed to be kind.

"What Kai is saying is that time is a valuable resource, which we do not have on our side." The blonde said, light-colored eyes sincere and calming.

"So you're saying that you need the quickest way to get there?" I scrolled down the document, quickly finding the image of an old map. "If this map is even correct, the West Bay is the fastest point to leave from, although, the journey itself is roughly two days time. Surely your friend will be okay-" The blonde got up, walking over to pick up a picture. I didn't even have to see it to know which one it was.

"Is this your child?" He asked, handing me the picture. I nodded. "How old is he?"

"He's almost eleven now." I smiled, quickly shaking my head. "You said you didn't have time, any other questions?"

"Yeah, anything we need to know before finding transport across an entire ocean?" The one in blue said.

"There are many dangerous creatures rumored to inhabit the water, Starteeth, a Leviathan, things of a very unpleasant nature." I didn't even have to look up to see that they didn't understand what any of that meant.

"What is your son's name?"

I stayed silent, giving the blonde a strange look. I never told people about Lloyd, especially since his destiny could allow for Garmadon to make alliances with petty criminals to keep Lloyd from reaching his destiny. For all I knew, they could be doing just that.

"Zane!" The dark-haired one hissed, clearly trying to remind his friend of something. "We're sorry, he does things like this a lot."

"It's alright." I turned to look at Zane. "His name is Lloyd."

The stares they gave me were enough to tell me what I had felt these past few days.

Their friend was Lloyd. Lloyd was already being trained to fight against his father.

Worse yet, Lloyd on his way to the Dark Island. Unless he knew what he was doing, this battle would be over before it even has a chance to start.

* * *

**Last time, we ended with Lloyd falling into the ocean, and washing up somewhere, with someone looking over him. **

**This time, we ended with Misako realizing Lloyd is in danger.**

**Next time though, we'll see what Lloyd's up to, and who has him. I promise!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Yeah, this is a pretty much all dialogue/setting up the rest of the story kind of chapter.**

**Like always, I don't own anything.**

* * *

Chapter Ten

Lloyd's POV

When I opened my eyes again, I was laying on a cot, in what I guessed was a landing of a staircase that stretched up a long way. There seemed to be several more landings above me, only one let light in. I assumed that was the top.

Looking down, I saw the stairs seemed to spiral before reaching a landing with a heavily locked door. _'This is where I really have to hope I'm not stuck with an insane person...' _Slowly, I got up, walking up the stairs. From where I was standing, I could hear someone humming.

"Uh...hello?" I said, as I reached the top of the stairs. Standing at a small work table was a man with hair so grey, it was almost white. He turned around, smiling kindly.

"Hello." He said, turning around to look at whatever he was working on. "I see you're awake."

"Yeah...where are we anyways? I really need to get back to my friends..." Something about him was...off. Just a little, but it seemed okay, like if he wasn't, it would seem wrong.

He turned around again, sighing. "Believe me, I've tried. There's no way off, not unless you can fly." I shook my head. "If you make a boat, the Leviathan below will know. He's been keeping me here for years."

"Why?" The man's face fell a little, and he turned back around. "Did you do something wrong?"

The way he stayed silent unnerved me, making me wonder if I was safer here, than I was with my father.

It took a few minutes before he finally answered me. "When you're as old as I am, you'll have made some good choices, and you will have done things you weren't proud of."

"...So you did do something wrong."

He nodded, pulling a stool out from under the desk next to him, gesturing for me to sit down. "I've done several things I'm not proud of. One before being brought here, and one after." I looked at what he was doing, he seemed to have started writing an apology letter to someone.

I could see blueprints for something under the letter, there were actually a lot of blue prints. "Are you an inventor?"

The man nodded, and his eyes seemed to slide along the wall, looking for something. "I am. My name is Dr. Julien."

He held out his hand, and I shook it. "I'm Lloyd."

There was a loud growl, and he quickly stood up, shoving me back towards the stairs. "Stay down, I'll explain more as soon as he's done checking up on me. I backed up until I was on the landing, just able to see the top of the floor, but none of the windows. "Just me, like always. I haven't left. You would know if I did!" He joked, lightly humoring whatever was up there. _'Probably the Leviathan he mentioned...unless he's crazy and talks to himself...'_

Listening, I heard it growl again, and the sound of it going back below the waves. As I sat down on the step, I waited for him to either come down and get me, or ask for me to come back up. Just like he said. _'Oh god, what if Skales' influence allows others to tell me what to do, and control me?!' _My mind whirred in a flurry of panic, thousands of thoughts and 'what ifs' raced by.

My mind was so busy, I didn't even hear Dr. Julien walk up behind me. Heck, I didn't even know he was there until he put his hand on my shoulder, making me jump a little. "Penny for your thoughts?" He asked, sitting down next to me.

I sighed, not entirely sure how to explain anything anymore. "Is saying that I've had a tough past few days enough?" My voice sounded weak and exhausted to my ears. He stared at me, patiently waiting for me to continue. He was different from a lot of people, instead of telling me that talking would make it better, he let me decide what I was and wasn't going to say. "It kinda started when the others got jobs. I couldn't go with them, and since Sensei and Nya were getting medicine for the Ultra-Dragon, I was stuck by myself. They were supposed to be training me, but they were always too tired!"

"Hang on, you've lost me. Who are the 'others' you mentioned?"

It was a little surprising and not at all surprising at the same time. He had said he had been stuck here for a long time, which I guess was true if he didn't know about the ninja. "The other ninja. Kai, Cole, Jay and Zane. They're supposed to protect me. If you didn't guess, they didn't do such a good job at that." I stared at the wall ahead, thinking about the others. _'They're probably looking for me right now. I know they are. They have to be...'_

"So how did you end up out in the middle of the ocean?" Oh yeah, right. Back to explaining.

"Well, since they were working and I was alone, Skales, the Hypnobrai general, he broke in and kidnapped me. Wanted to use me as a bargaining chip against my dad. Of course, my dad got me away from him, but Skales had-" My throat seemed to seize up. _'Not again!' __  
_

_'I thought I made it clear that you weren't supposed to tell anyone?' _Skales thought back to me, or whatever it was he did. _'Just tell him that things didn't follow your father's plan.' _The feeling left my throat again, and I took a deep breath, coughing loudly. My ribs ached, afterwards. I felt a hand rubbing soothing circles on my back, and it seemed to help. "Right," I coughed again, this one slightly less violent feeling. "Well, my dad's plan didn't work, and I ended up falling into the ocean."

He nodded, and I was glad he didn't speak for a minute. He understood without saying a word. Getting up, I followed him back up the stairs, and I watched as he seemed to wander around, looking for something. "So, Dr. Julien, are you going to tell me what got you sent here?"

He froze, turning around. "I wasn't sent here exactly. They forced me here, but they said if I did what they said, I'd get to see my son again." Inside, I felt like I had crossed a line. I know how awful it felt on visitation days at school, being the only kid whose parents didn't show up. Did his son have to go through that?

"Maybe you will get to see him again!" I said, remembering that the others were still looking for me. "When the others come and find me, we can take you with us, and help you find your son!"

Shaking his head, he was silent for a moment. "He'd think I'm a monster...' He whispered. Whether he wanted me to hear what he had said next or not, I'm not sure, but I fell silent.

What kind of son would ever think his dad was a monster? I didn't think my dad was, and my dad's destined to try to destroy all of Ninjago.

* * *

**ACK. Dramatic irony will one day kill me. **

**We all know that when and if the ninja come, Dr. Julien will be reunited with Zane, but Lloyd doesn't, or at least, not yet!**

**Next chapter we're going to skip ahead about a month. Lloyd will have been stuck on the island, slowly learning more, and practicing with his powers. Because I don't feel like re-writing all of everything that happened, the story has kinda fallen back into the original plot of the show, After Lloyd fell, Garmadon went back, this time going to get Skales to retrieve his son, or at least tell him where he is, blah blah blah, the ninja get their ship back, blah blah blah, stone army, blah, blah, blah.**

**Any questions for me?**


	11. Chapter 11

**So I intended to spend all morning on this chapter, but then I started watching Attack On Titan...and...yeah.**

**Have we figured out that I own nothing yet? Would I really be making you guys wait 58-57 days if I did?**

* * *

Chapter 11

Lloyd's POV

Walking down the stairs, I made it to the base of the light house. Holding the flashlight up, I scanned the shelf, looking for the jar he had told me had something that would make the tea less bitter. "Have you found it yet?" Dr. Julien asked, all the way back upstairs. Getting on my tip toes, I reached for it, my arm brushing a different jar off the corner of the shelf. It fell, shattering at my feet. _'Oh gosh, not good!' _

From everything Sensei had ever taught me, shattering strange jars of unknown herbs and tea usually was bad. I could tell from how it looked on the floor.

A cloud of whatever had been inside the jar flew up, getting into my nose, mouth and eyes. Coughing loudly, I felt something happening. As the air in the room cleared, I opened my eyes again. This time level with the spice rack. "Uh…there might be a small problem." I shouted back, jumping a little at the sound of my voice. I sounded...older. "I did find what you told me to find though!"

Climbing back up the stairs, jar in hand, Dr. Julien looked at me twice. "Oh...this'll be fun to explain..." He said, shaking his head. "I'm going to guess that there was a jar of Tomorrow's tea on the shelf as well?" Handing over the container, I tilted my head.

"Tomorrow's tea?" I asked, my eyebrows furrowing. "Is that why I'm older?"

He nodded, opening the jar. picking up something from inside, I watched him drop it into my teacup. A sugar cube. The hot tea made it dissolve quickly, falling to the bottom of the tea-cup. "Which also brings another question up, how much closer are you to your destiny?"

Inwardly groaning, I rolled my eyes. We _always _ended up on the topic of my destiny. He made me train as much as I could within the confines of the tower. Mainly because the Leviathan didn't know I was here, or at least not yet anyways. I kinda wanted to keep it that way, mainly because we didn't know what would happen if it did know I was here. I mean, it wasn't like I exactly had a way off here either, but still, better safe than sorry. "I'd assume it's closer. Which is pretty bad. If I had a lot of time left, it puts less of a strain on the other's to find me."

Silently, we sipped at our tea, watching clouds blow over the horizon. Sun-stained, fluffy wisps of clouds.

* * *

A few days had passed by uneventfully, I spent most of my time training now, and I was a lot better than I was before. I didn't have to take as many breaks. Most nights, after about an hour of talking to Dr. Julien, we'd both go to sleep. I still slept on the small cot on the landing, while he stayed up there, so if the Leviathan checked, he could see he hadn't left.

Tonight's conversation had left me wide awake, wishing I could contact the others.

_"Dr. Julien," _I had asked as I watched the little tea robot roll across the table. _"You never told me anything about your son."_

He had given me a strange look. _"I thought I had." _In reply, I shook my head. _"Ah, I must have forgotten to. I did mention him though. Might as well tell you the whole story." _The sun had set, and the lightbulbs had taken over, a soft light lit the small tower. _"As you know, I was an inventor. But my workshop was in a very secluded part of Ninjago, not many people would be willing to visit. I built a robot, one who would be able to act as a son to me. I named him Zane." _

Laying on the small cot, I curled up under the blanket. Dr. Julien had said goodnight hours ago, and I was still wide awake.

Thunder rumbled loudly in the distance, It was probably really far away, but I knew that out here, any thunder sounded minutes away. _'If Zane knew his dad was alive...' _Yawning, I closed my eyes, listening to the sound of rough waves, and a distant giggling sound.

* * *

There was a loud crunching sound that woke me up, making me fall off the bed, carding my hair through my fingers. Pushing myself up, I ran up the stairs, and looked out the window, startling Dr. Julien.

There, stuck on rocks outside, was the Destiny's Bounty. My breath caught in my chest for a minute, afraid that my dad had finally found me, and wasn't going to leave without me. _'But would he even recognize me?' _Relieved, I exhaled.

Standing in silence, I watched the ship, waiting for something to happen.

Sure enough, someone jumped off the boat. Kai.

The others followed, stopping, and looking up at the stairs. As they started making their way up the stairs, I turned around. Dr. Julien was already making his way down the stairs to unlock the door, his ridiculous key ring in hand. Starting to follow him, I took the steps two at a time, quickly catching up. Reaching the floor, Dr. Julien pulled me aside, looking me in the eyes.

"Lloyd, you don't look the way you did, they probably won't recognize you."

"I know, I really do. It's just that, I miss them, they're the only family I have besides my dad." I said, but not even that thought could keep the smile off my face. "Zane'll recognize you."

He nodded, and went to unlock the door. Taking a deep breath, I let the smile vanish, calming myself down.

* * *

**So I bet some of you are wondering why the others wouldn't recognize Lloyd, right?**

**Well, when Lloyd aged, Dr Julien found an extra pair of clothes for Lloyd to wear, so he could help him, that and the gi isn't very comfortable to sleep in (I tried on my brother's judo gi once, and that thing is uncomfortable as hell). Usually when Lloyd would be training, he'd put on his gi, but since he had been sleeping, he was wearing the spare clothes.**


	12. Chapter 12

**So before you all jump down my throat about not following the three-day rule, let me explain.**

**My three-day rule said that I was going to have to post on the 23rd, as well as the 26th. Unfortunately, seeing as there will be the slight issue about not having internet at all on the 26th, I decided that it would be wiser for me to just make chapter 12 late.**

**Sorry for the wait, especially after I built everything up like that.**

**Do I still need to put that I am not LEGO down?**

* * *

Chapter Twelve

Lloyd's POV

Hanging back, I retreated to the stairs, still at a good spot to see everyone and watch everything unfold. Seeing everyone there and Zane's face when he recognized who was in front of him.

"Zane," Dr. Julien said, quickly hugging Zane. "You found me!"

Deciding to play along like I didn't know them, I spoke up. "Do you know him?" The others looked past him, seeing me sitting on the stairs. Even Dr. Julien turned around, nodding.

"I built him for heaven's sake!" He turned back to Zane, noticing his confused face.

"I do not understand, my memories told me you have passed!"

Dr. Julien nodded. "So you found your memory switch." the Leviathan growled.

"Dr. J, we should probably get them all inside...like now." I said, getting up. Stretching a little, I winced at the sound of my shoulder popping. He nodded, and everyone walked inside.

Jay was the first one to be nosy. He walked over to me, and tilted his head to the side. "So who are you?"

I couldn't help but smile, I was just as tall as him now. "I like guessing games. You can take wild guesses at my name if you want to." Part of me wanted to just tell him, but part of me wanted to not have to explain what my own carelessness had caused.

Dr. Julien finished his usual locking method on the door, quickly checking the security camera to make sure the Leviathan wasn't about to come out of nowhere to check up on him, and started heading up the stairs, talking to Zane.

"That wasn't an answer. I asked what you name was." Jay said. "Just tell me."

"But it's an easy guess!" I said, throwing my hands in the air. "Just say the first name that comes to mind."

"Alright then..." Jay said, thinking. "Lloyd?"

There was nothing for me to do besides smile. "Yup."

Starting up the stairs, Jay and I were racing to catch up with the others who were almost at the top. "Why didn't you say something?" He asked, tripping slightly on the cot. Helping him up, he looked at me. "And when did you grow up?"

I had to think, when did I grow up? "A few days ago, maybe a week." The sense of timelessness that I had was unnerving. "Everything sorta blurs together here."

Reaching the top of the stairs, we were both breathless. My ankle throbbed from the healing scrapes. Everyone looked at us strangely. "Guys, I found Lloyd."

"Jay, stop joking around. He's been gone for a month, not years." Cole said, rolling his eyes. "Last I checked, Lloyd was a little kid."

Dr. Julien stepped forward, but Zane spoke first. "My analysis says it is Lloyd. How he grew up so quickly however, I do not know."

Smiling sheepishly, I looked down. "I went downstairs to get sugar for tea, and accidentally knocked something over, and," My hands did a miniature rainbow gesture. "Poof, I'm older." Poof was pretty much the only word I had to describe what happened with the Tomorrow's tea.

The woman who had been sitting next to my uncle looked up. Her face was full of mixed emotions. _'I-I know you.' _My mind told me. There was something about her that I could recognize.

She stood up, walking over to me. Looking her in the eyes, I knew what she was about to say. "Is it really you Lloyd? You've grown so much." Tears were beginning to well in her eyes. "It's been so long since I've seen you, son."

* * *

Jay's POV

Lloyd took his introduction to his mother relatively well. Better than I would have. He stood there silently for a minute, before hugging Misako. I could tell he was trying to not cry.

When he pulled back though, he seemed to change his attitude. "You left me!" His voice was pretty harsh. I know my parents would have twisted my ear for using that tone with them. Considering that she had left him at Darkley's, I could understand why she didn't seem to care.

"I had my reasons, Lloyd, please, just let me-" A loud sound cut her off. Lloyd looked at Dr. Julien. He nodded.

"Everyone, hide. The Leviathan can't know you're here, otherwise, there'll be dues to pay!" Nya and I hid between two large crates, Lloyd, Sensei and Misako disappeared down the steps, and the others found various other places around the room to hide.

Whatever Dr. Julien was doing while the Leviathan looked around seemed to be satisfactory. It quickly left. The entire tower was silent, until we could hear it dive under the water below. Climbing out from our hiding space, only Sensei came back up the stairs.

We all knew why. Misako was explaining to Lloyd everything she had told us.

I decided to give the rest of us something to do. "Now...we have a problem. We need to fix our boat so we can get off this rock."

* * *

**So they've reunited. What now?**

**Well, I could either stop here, and write some shitty epilogue of Lloyd and Garmy talking about the time he was hostage to the Serpentine, and how they both felt, or I could continue re-writing the last four episodes. (I prefer the first idea of just making a time jump and doing the epilogue, but that's just me)**

**If I do that, Let me tell you, I have 2-3 expositions for chapters for stories I've been writing over the past month, so I'd start another project pretty fast.**


	13. Epilogue

**So I chose the epilogue.**

**Own nothing. Live long and prosper guys.**

* * *

Epilogue

_Hours After The Final Battle_

Lloyd's POV

Rotating my ankle nervously, I realized that this was the leg I had broken only hours ago. _'It healed itself. Maybe that happened when I went all gold and stuff...' _

I was sitting in the apartment, trying to relax. My fingers kept playing with the bottom of my t-shirt, twisting the fabric.

"Lloyd?" My father asked, making me look up. He smiled a little, walking over to where I was sitting. Standing up, I hugged him again. "Son, I wanted to talk to you."

"Me too, dad." I said, stepping back. "About when Skales kidnapped me." The temperature of the air in the room dropped. "You made me honestly believe that you didn't care about what happened to me!"

He reached out, placing a hand on my shoulder. "I did it to protect you. My hopes were that the three-day window would give the ninja enough time to save you." He said, looking down. "Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way."

Crossing my arms over my chest, I sat down on the couch, leaning back. Dad sat next to me. "When I got to the bay, and saw that they still had you, I knew I had to think fast."

"They came close." I said, looking my dad in the eyes. "To finding me. At one point, they were only about fifteen feet away from where I was being held."

Dad gave me a strange look. "But they didn't check where you were?" I shook my head.

"By that point, Skales' had hypnotized me. He made me move away from the window I was in front of. Just so they wouldn't see me." I said, my hand clenching into a fist at the thought of how helpless I had been. The way I had been incapable of saving myself.

My father noticed my clenched fist. "Every time I did something he didn't like, every time I _thought _something he didn't like, he'd cut off my breathing!" I could feel my anger rising. Taking a deep breath, I calmed down. "If the final battle had never happened, he'd still have control over me."

"So he's gone now?"

I nodded. "When I was fighting the Overlord, I felt whatever the link was that let him control me snap." My hand unclenched, and I smiled. "Where are the Serpentine now anyways?" Dad shrugged.

"Who cares?" He said, waving his hand in the air. "They're gone. That's what matters."

"Yeah." I said, watching the sun peek out from behind clouds, lighting up the apartment. "Who cares."

* * *

**Crap endingss!**

**I want to hear from you guys, what your thoughts were on the story overall, what you wanted to see that didn't happen, what you think I can improve on, ect.**


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